Rimshots #14 “Equivalent”

The very definition of the real becomes that it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction…. The real thing is not only what can be reproduced, but that which has always already been reproduced. – Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929), French semiologist. Simulations, pt. 2, “The Hyperrealism of Simulation,” (1983).

I think this is the fundamental reason why those who claim atheism can find solace in science and the scientific method. God is not reproducible; therefore, he is not real. However, this belies the possibility of uniqueness. The argument goes that if something happened once, it can happen again, laying aside any difficulties in reproducing the conditions. Despite this attempt at self-assurance, the one thing that this and all similar arguments can never deal with is the possibility of the prime of primes, the singular uniqueness, the first non-reproducible–in other words, God.